Attention Economy


Sunday, January 22, 2023

Ageing Planet - The Big Picture

Ageing planet: the new demographic timebomb
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/22/ageing-planet-the-new-demographic-timebomb
And in a world facing climate catastrophe and a worrying fall in biodiversity, that is a much better way to address the challenges of ageing populations in some areas, than unfettered population growth that is dangerous for both us and the planet.
“We are in transition across the 21st century and need to adjust to this age-structural transition, rather than fight it,” Harper said. “So that every generation, every cohort, more or less replaces itself.” 

The Upside of Population Decline
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/benefits-of-declining-human-population-by-adair-turner-2021-06
A pervasive conventional bias assumes that population decline must be a bad thing. But in a world where technology enables us to automate ever more jobs, the far bigger problem is too many potential workers, not too few.

Why China’s declining population growth may be good news
A pervasive conventional bias assumes that population decline must be a bad thing. But while absolute economic growth is bound to fall as populations stabilise and then decline, it is income per capita which matters for prosperity and economic opportunity. And if educated women are unwilling to produce babies to make economic nationalists feel good, that is a highly desirable development.
Meanwhile, arguments that stable or falling populations threaten per capita growth are hugely overstated and, in some cases, plain wrong.